German of Lebanese descent Khaled al-Masri reads German newspapers covering his alleged abduction by the CIA in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked about the 2004 rendition of al-Masri, who maintains he was seized while on vacation in Macedonia. He says he was then brought to a U.S. prison in Afghanistan where he was tortured and interrogated for suspected ties to the al-Qaida terrorist group. Merkel said "the government of the U.S. has, of course, accepted as a mistake" the rendition and added that the case had been referred to a special parliamentary commission for investigation. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)

— A German man who claims he was beaten and held in a secret prison in Afghanistan by the CIA has begun a lawsuit in Europe.

He says he was arrested in the former Yugoslav state of Macedonia in December 2003, and that his five-month ordeal only ended when U.S. personnel eventually decided they had got the wrong person, BBC News reported. The Afghan prison he was held in was nicknamed “the salt pit.”

El-Masri is suing the Macedonian government for its alleged involvement in the case.

'Ill-treated'He claims that he was “ill-treated” and kept in solitary confinement in a hotel in Skopje, Macedonia, for 23 days before he was handed over to the CIA, according to the court’s press release.

“He submits that he was beaten, kicked and threatened while interrogated in a small, dirty, dark concrete cell in which he was kept in a brick factory,” near Kabul, the statement added.

The court’s press release said the Macedonian government’s position was that el-Masri had been interviewed by police because he was “suspected of traveling with false documents.”

The Macedonia authorities say he had been allowed into the country and had then left, crossing the border with Kosovo.

The case is being heard by the court’s Grand Chamber, its highest level.